8 settembre 2009
Buon giorno famiglia!
Well, I’m down to my last week in the United States. We have our flight plans and we finished our last TRC appointment, and we’re almost ready to go. I guess it’s gone by pretty quickly; there’s not much time to think about it though really, and looking back on the first few days, it feels like ages. But I’m almost done here, and I guess we’ll see how everything goes next week. I’m not sure when p-day is or when I’ll get the chance to write or email next, but that’s okay; I’m sure I’ll get to soon.
So this week’s devotional, we heard from Elder Sybrowsky. He has 9 kids, and 8 of them have gone or are currently serving on missions, and the ninth is putting in his papers at the end of this month. One of the big points of their talk was remembering the people who brought their family into the gospel, and where it all started and who it all started with. And they asked us to all think about it and I really don’t know who started it. I knew on Mom’s side, Oma and Opa were the first, and Grandma Sommerfeld, but I don’t know about anybody else.
Elder Sybrowsky gave us advice from the apostles he ate lunch with a couple of weeks ago. Elder Perry said to tell us to take care of each other as companions, to look out for each other and be positive. And if they’re doing something they shouldn’t be, to tell someone (like the mission president) so they can be helped. He says the way we treat our companions is practice for the way we’ll treat our spouse. Elder Oaks said to teach us to follow the Spirit, to plan and be prepared but always have room for the Spirit to teach. Elder Nelson said to tell us why we’re doing this, to help us remember the reason we’re here, which is to help people and bring them to Christ.
So, any stories about who the first members in our family are?
We had a zone conference this week too; in the MTC a zone conference is talks by a few of the zone’s teachers. It was pretty good—they aren’t great at keeping within their allotted time though. But one of the teachers was talking about how we should always be thinking about other people, and we’re all family and friends. And when we meet people, we should try to see them as the Lord sees them. So, Fratello Anna and Fratello Welch sang, “Love is Spoken Here,” accompanied by Fratello Anna’s ukulele. It was really cool.
And we learned that we’re like Peter, and being a missionary is like walking on water. As long as we stay focused on Christ and don’t think about how impossible things seem, we’ll be okay. We just need to not doubt and not get distracted.
There were a lot of good talks this week, with devotionals and firesides, and zone and mission conferences.
I’ve been working on memorizing the Articles of Faith in Italian. They’re pretty easy, because I know them in English. It’s kind of fun. And one of the talks in Mission conference on Sunday said that we should have them memorized and be able to recite them or recall them without hesitation. So I feel pretty good about memorizing them.
The past two weeks at Sunday firesides, the musical number has been a group of Elders who are going to/from islands in the Pacific, and they’ve sung, “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy.” I don’t know if I’d ever heard the words before, but it’s a really cool song. And Brother Graham, who spoke to us on Sunday night, served in Tahiti a long time ago, and explained a bit about the song. When you’re on a boat going into an island that’s surrounded by reefs, you definitely need a lighthouse with a big light. But there are lower lights in the water that help you get to the big light, because if you just tried to go straight to the lighthouse you’d hit the reefs and sink. So you need to find these lower lights and line them up with the lighthouse to find a straight and safe path to the island. So when it says, “Let the lower lights keep burning,” it’s talking about those, and how it’s next to impossible to get to the island without them. And missionaries are the lower lights. We have to be in line with Christ so that we can help people get to Him safely. It was interesting to have that explained, because I had no idea about that.
His talk was all about being nice and sincere and genuinely interested in people’s lives. His wife is a convert and testified that those things really work. She was working as a nurse on the Isle of Man trying to save money to travel, and wasn’t planning on getting to know anyone, but then she was a nurse for a lady (her daughter really) who slowly became her friend and introduced her to the gospel. And she joined the Church and served a service-ish mission as a nurse. Anyway, it was good. And we implemented that genuine interest during our TRC visit.
Overall, this week has given us a lot of learning experiences. It’s been fun.
Thank you so much for the pictures. J Those are fun. My companions think Christy’s way cute.
There are always donuts here at the MTC, but I try to never eat them. There are a lot of foods to avoid; it’s kind of sad. But I’ve been doing really well this past couple of weeks. I’m down 5 pounds since I got here. (I think I’d be a completely ineffective missionary is I gained 40 lbs.)
I’m going to be sending a camera chip and some books home this weekend; I hope that’s okay. My camera takes really nice pictures, I’ve noticed. It’s fun to learn how all the things work.
Well, I’m excited for Italy next week. It’s exciting to be about ready to go. I know the Church is true and I know the Italians need it. Especially since they’re going to be getting a temple there soon! I’m excited to meet them and to share the gospel with them. It really is so important.
Thanks for sending the president’s speech. It was a pretty good one. I’m glad he thinks that school-kids should have some responsibility in their education. I hope Christy enjoys her high school classes.
I love you! I’ll try to call from the airport.
<3 Sorella Eliza
Well, I’m down to my last week in the United States. We have our flight plans and we finished our last TRC appointment, and we’re almost ready to go. I guess it’s gone by pretty quickly; there’s not much time to think about it though really, and looking back on the first few days, it feels like ages. But I’m almost done here, and I guess we’ll see how everything goes next week. I’m not sure when p-day is or when I’ll get the chance to write or email next, but that’s okay; I’m sure I’ll get to soon.
So this week’s devotional, we heard from Elder Sybrowsky. He has 9 kids, and 8 of them have gone or are currently serving on missions, and the ninth is putting in his papers at the end of this month. One of the big points of their talk was remembering the people who brought their family into the gospel, and where it all started and who it all started with. And they asked us to all think about it and I really don’t know who started it. I knew on Mom’s side, Oma and Opa were the first, and Grandma Sommerfeld, but I don’t know about anybody else.
Elder Sybrowsky gave us advice from the apostles he ate lunch with a couple of weeks ago. Elder Perry said to tell us to take care of each other as companions, to look out for each other and be positive. And if they’re doing something they shouldn’t be, to tell someone (like the mission president) so they can be helped. He says the way we treat our companions is practice for the way we’ll treat our spouse. Elder Oaks said to teach us to follow the Spirit, to plan and be prepared but always have room for the Spirit to teach. Elder Nelson said to tell us why we’re doing this, to help us remember the reason we’re here, which is to help people and bring them to Christ.
So, any stories about who the first members in our family are?
We had a zone conference this week too; in the MTC a zone conference is talks by a few of the zone’s teachers. It was pretty good—they aren’t great at keeping within their allotted time though. But one of the teachers was talking about how we should always be thinking about other people, and we’re all family and friends. And when we meet people, we should try to see them as the Lord sees them. So, Fratello Anna and Fratello Welch sang, “Love is Spoken Here,” accompanied by Fratello Anna’s ukulele. It was really cool.
And we learned that we’re like Peter, and being a missionary is like walking on water. As long as we stay focused on Christ and don’t think about how impossible things seem, we’ll be okay. We just need to not doubt and not get distracted.
There were a lot of good talks this week, with devotionals and firesides, and zone and mission conferences.
I’ve been working on memorizing the Articles of Faith in Italian. They’re pretty easy, because I know them in English. It’s kind of fun. And one of the talks in Mission conference on Sunday said that we should have them memorized and be able to recite them or recall them without hesitation. So I feel pretty good about memorizing them.
The past two weeks at Sunday firesides, the musical number has been a group of Elders who are going to/from islands in the Pacific, and they’ve sung, “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy.” I don’t know if I’d ever heard the words before, but it’s a really cool song. And Brother Graham, who spoke to us on Sunday night, served in Tahiti a long time ago, and explained a bit about the song. When you’re on a boat going into an island that’s surrounded by reefs, you definitely need a lighthouse with a big light. But there are lower lights in the water that help you get to the big light, because if you just tried to go straight to the lighthouse you’d hit the reefs and sink. So you need to find these lower lights and line them up with the lighthouse to find a straight and safe path to the island. So when it says, “Let the lower lights keep burning,” it’s talking about those, and how it’s next to impossible to get to the island without them. And missionaries are the lower lights. We have to be in line with Christ so that we can help people get to Him safely. It was interesting to have that explained, because I had no idea about that.
His talk was all about being nice and sincere and genuinely interested in people’s lives. His wife is a convert and testified that those things really work. She was working as a nurse on the Isle of Man trying to save money to travel, and wasn’t planning on getting to know anyone, but then she was a nurse for a lady (her daughter really) who slowly became her friend and introduced her to the gospel. And she joined the Church and served a service-ish mission as a nurse. Anyway, it was good. And we implemented that genuine interest during our TRC visit.
Overall, this week has given us a lot of learning experiences. It’s been fun.
Thank you so much for the pictures. J Those are fun. My companions think Christy’s way cute.
There are always donuts here at the MTC, but I try to never eat them. There are a lot of foods to avoid; it’s kind of sad. But I’ve been doing really well this past couple of weeks. I’m down 5 pounds since I got here. (I think I’d be a completely ineffective missionary is I gained 40 lbs.)
I’m going to be sending a camera chip and some books home this weekend; I hope that’s okay. My camera takes really nice pictures, I’ve noticed. It’s fun to learn how all the things work.
Well, I’m excited for Italy next week. It’s exciting to be about ready to go. I know the Church is true and I know the Italians need it. Especially since they’re going to be getting a temple there soon! I’m excited to meet them and to share the gospel with them. It really is so important.
Thanks for sending the president’s speech. It was a pretty good one. I’m glad he thinks that school-kids should have some responsibility in their education. I hope Christy enjoys her high school classes.
I love you! I’ll try to call from the airport.
<3 Sorella Eliza
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